Hillary Clinton will likely have a unique chance to remake the federal judiciary

[workinclasszero]

Hillary Clinton will likely have a unique chance to remake the federal judiciary
Updated by Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias [email protected] Aug 22, 2016, 10:00a


Hillary Clinton has the capacity to do something that almost never gets discussed in the campaign: change the ideological landscape of the federal judiciary for a generation. It could be one of the defining features of her legacy.

In part, that will be a consequence of getting to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left open by Antonin Scalia — creating the first progressive Supreme Court majority in decades and opening the door to much more expansive efforts at progressive legal advocacy.

But it more subtly reflects a Clinton administration’s likely impact on lower courts.

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/22/12550852/hillary-clinton-lower-courts

[Hortensis]

1. Good article, thanks. She has over 100 vacancies

to fill NOW, plus announced retirements, and as the article explained more retirements as the identity of the next president becomes known.

You know, for a man who planned and scrabbled for his current powerful seat for 30 years, selling influence 6 ways from Sunday the whole time, McConnell hasn't handled this at all well. And now apparently he can't control the Senate well enough to try to quick-fill some of these seats.

[politicaljunkie41910]

2. Hopefully, if we win the WH and the Senate, Breyer will step down with Ginsburg,

giving Hillary three Supreme Court picks at the very least. Kennedy will probably not go willingly, but the demographic cards are stacked against him. We could see four Supreme Court picks easily before the next presidential election. Hillary should have not problem finding four very young, competent women, as replacements. Four more women would certainly change the face of the SC for the rest of my lifetime.

[Hortensis]

3. Like your thinking! Women do think differently politically,

somewhat more liberally and in imo responsibly in general, and if the media were not so negative toward HRC, and suspiciously quiet about the gradual gaining of power by the female half of the population, I suspect that would be discussed a lot more in this election. They're not about to trumpet the huge advance her candidacy is in the political revolution that has been underway for some while.

But if Notorious RBG steps down, how about 2, at the most 3, more women, for 4 or 5 of a 9 person court?

I'm thinking that we really need to rebuild our badly damaged trust in SCOTUS. As one of the 3 pillars of our government, weakened confidence in it destabilizes our entire system. For the same reason, stacking it with strong left-wingers with lifetime terms, as some want, would be extremely unwise. Mainstream Americans, left and right, have to feel its legal principles generally reflect their values. We wouldn't want an angry "reform" movement in the 2020s restructuring the court to get rid of them and reverse their decisions.